Karamourtopoulos scored the game's only goal in the 38th minute, and the second-seeded Saints beat No. 15 Milford 1-0 in the first round of the Class I tournament. The sophomore forward received a perfect, pin-point pass from Taylor MacDonald which rolled straight and true on the artificial surface of the Seacoast United Soccer Complex.

"Plays like that don't happen often," Karamourtopoulos said. "When it does, you have to make the most of it. It was a perfect pass. It was there."

Wednesday's game was played in Epping due to wet conditions at the Saint's home field. The win put St. Thomas (16-0-1) into the quarterfinals, where they will play No. 7 Pembroke (11-4-2) on their home field in Dover Saturday afternoon at 2. Pembroke was a 3-1 winner over No. 10 John Stark (7-6-4). on Wednesday. Milford's season is over at 7-10.

St. Thomas kept its unbeaten season alive and improved to 16-0-1. Should it win Saturday, it will advance to next week's semifinal round, which will put the Saints back on an artificial turf surface at Stellos Stadium in Nashua. And that would be just fine with MacDonald.

"I definitely think the turf helped," MacDonald said. "I saw Nic make a great run up the middle. He was able to put it past the defender and just slide it right by the goalie. They have a great defense, and we needed to be taking better shots. We were taking some bad shots. We had our opportunities, and we were able to capitalize when Nic made a great play."

MacDonald dribbled down the left wing with the ball, passed the ball through a slot of Spartan defenders, slid the ball to Karamourtopoulos in stride, and Karamourtopoulos drilled it past Milford goalie Andrew White for a 1-0 lead for the Saints just before halftime.

"It was really a good move," St. Thomas coach Scott Suleski said of the goal by Karamourtopolous. "It was a great play by Nic — he's a good talker and communicator out there. He called for that ball."

In the second half, Suleski was briefly knocked unconscious by an errant ball while he stood by the sidelines. Suleski fell back and hit his head on a pole, which was holding up a large net. He was quickly helped to his feet as play resumed.

"They have a big defense," Suleski said about Milford. "We couldn't go over the top. We needed to beat them on the ground. They kept resorting to trying to go over the top."

St. Thomas was a 2-0 winner over Milford in the regular season, and goals were again at a premium Wednesday. The Saints found themselves playing defense for most of the first 20 minutes of the game, and weren't able to come up with many solid scoring chances of their own. In the 20th minute, a shot by Eddie Conroy hit the crossbar, and the rebound by Mike Ernsting went just over the crossbar. Later in the half, a shot by Doug Crow just cleared the crossbar.

In the second half, the Spartans were kept in the game due to White's efforts. White knocked down a number of shots by the St. Thomas front line, and a shot by Karamourtopoulos went wide of the net.

"He's a great goalie," said third-year Milford coach Jim Tallarico. "I clearly think he's an all-state caliber goalie. He keeps us in many games. He's a great player. Great kid, too."

On the other end, St. Thomas goalie Ken Grade wasn't exactly peppered with shots, but he did come up big on one occasion just before time expired in regulation. A shot by Milford's Tevin Aubry was right on target and would have tied the game, but Grade was there to make the save.

"I had a feeling it was coming at me," Grade said. "This field is fast, and you have to go where you think it's going. I didn't have to dive, but I didn't want to take any chances. On this field, the ball can bounce over you."

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